Begell House Inc.
Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering
JWM
1072-8325
4
1
1998
RESPONSE BIAS IN A SURVEY OF ASIAN-AMERICAN AND WHITE SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING STUDENTS
1-13
10.1615/JWomenMinorScienEng.v4.i1.10
Jerilee
Grandy
Educational Testing Service, Princeton, NJ
A recent survey of gender and ethnic differences among science and engineering majors suggested that Asian-American students were less content with their undergraduate experiences and with their field of study than were white students or students of other ethnic groups. Additional analyses, reported here, indicated that Asian-American students tended to endorse the middle response on a five-point Likert scale more than white students did, and to avoid extreme responses. This response bias accounted, in part, for the lower ratings Asian Americans gave to their undergraduate experiences. Readers are alerted to the possible pitfalls of comparing survey results across cultures, and recommendations are made to conduct further research on the design of suitable questionnaire items for cross-cultural surveys.
COMPUTER SCIENCE PROGRAMS IN ENGINEERING COLLEGES = FEWER FEMALES
15-25
10.1615/JWomenMinorScienEng.v4.i1.20
Tracy
Camp
The University of Alabama, Department of Computer Science, Box 870290, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0290
Recently, the Department of Computer Science (CS) at the University of Alabama formed stronger ties with the College of Engineering and weaker ties with the College of Arts and Sciences. Due to this change in alignment, CS faculty began encouraging CS majors to switch from the College of Arts and Sciences to the College of Engineering. At the same time, there was a large decrease in the percentage of females in the CS program. This paper illustrates that the decrease in the percentage of females in the CS program at the University of Alabama is not an anomaly. The statistics of degrees earned by females from CS departments across the nation, comparing CS departments in engineering colleges and in nonengineering colleges, are analyzed. The results indicate that CS programs in engineering colleges will have fewer females graduate than CS programs in other colleges. We follow the statistics with a discussion of why females are hesitant to enter CS programs in engineering colleges and we consider what changes are necessary to reverse this trend.
CLOSING THE GENDER GAP IN STUDENT CONFIDENCE: RESULTS FROM A UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS PHYSICS CLASS
27-42
10.1615/JWomenMinorScienEng.v4.i1.30
Gay
Stewart
Department of Physics, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR 72701
Jon
Osborn
Department of Physics, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR 72701
It is agreed that an increasing level of technical literacy will be needed to maintain the society of the future. A lower level of technical literacy for women and minorities translates into a perpetuating economic disadvantage for them and for our country. The question then becomes how to best include and educate this workforce. In this study, women's and men's perceptions of and confidence in an experimental physics class at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, are compared. The class is a National Science Foundation sponsored CCD project that does not address women specifically, but attempts to improve the educational experience for all students. The results presented indicate that women make statistically significant gains in confidence and attitude toward science in the experimental course when compared to a traditional course. "Statistically significant" gain is taken to mean that a statistically significant gap between men and women favoring the men was reduced to a statistically insignificant gap or that a statistically insignificant gap between the men and the women became a statistically significant advantage to the women.
ORGANIZATIONAL VARIATIONS IN WOMEN SCIENTISTS' REPRESENTATION IN ACADEMIA
43-67
10.1615/JWomenMinorScienEng.v4.i1.40
Stephen
Kulis
Arizona State University, Department of Sociology, Box 872101, Tempe, AZ 85287
Using a nationally representative sample of college faculty from a wide array of institutions and science disciplines, this study investigates links between organizational conditions and women's representation on college faculties. Hypotheses derive from competing explanations for the sharp differences found in women's and men's career outcomes in academia: institutionalized discrimination that protects men's dominant group privileges, statistical discrimination based on expectations of gender differences in academic preparation and scholarship, variations in the female doctoral labor supply by science discipline and locality, political restraints on discrimination and pressure for equal employment opportunity. A multivariate analysis examines organizational conditions associated with women's likelihood of holding faculty appointments at different tenure levels. Results indicate that although the female doctoral labor supply and political constraints are powerful factors in the representation of women faculty, selective organizational contexts play a substantial role as well. Although we find little evidence that insulation from competition or segmented faculty labor markets strongly influence the gender composition of science faculties, women are more often found in entry-level positions where institutionalized discrimination may be checked by unionization and proportionally sizable constituencies of women administrators and students. Consistent with statistical discrimination, women scientists and engineers are poorly represented at the entry level in research-oriented institutions and are more scarce in tenured positions within highly prestigious departments and institutions with very selective admissions. These organizational influences on women's faculty representation hold even after controlling for gender differences in the prestige of academic credentials, level of work experience, and marital and child-rearing responsibilities.
ISSUES OF GENDER AND PERSONAL LIFE FOR WOMEN IN ACADEMIC BIOLOGY
69-89
10.1615/JWomenMinorScienEng.v4.i1.50
Anne-Marie
Scholer
Division of Arts & Sciences, Endicott College, 376 Hale Street, Beverly, MA 01915
This paper uses qualitative methodology to explore the issues of gender and of personal life that arose during discussions with women scientists about the factors to which each attributes her success in completing training and pursuing an academic career. Twenty women were each interviewed once to collect educational and career histories and to discuss suggestions for improving the situation. The gender-related issues include gender discrimination, the perception of "reverse discrimination," efforts toward assisting junior women in science, and the possibility that women practice or will practice science in a different manner than their male colleagues. Also discussed are the day-to-day time conflicts between a career in scientific research and a personal life, and the poor fit between the female reproductive capacity and the tenure clock.